Forms: 1 láðlic, 2–3 loðlic, 3 lad-, lað-, loð(e)liche, 3–4 lod(e)lich(e, -like, -lych, loþely(ch, 4 lat-, laþ-, loþli, loth(e)-, loþliche, 4–6 lod(e)ly, loth(e)lie, -ly, (5 lathely, loodly, looþeli, lotly), 5–6 layth(e)liche, -ly, 6 Sc. lathly, laitlie, -ye, 6– loathly. compar. 3 laðluker, superl. 3 lað-, lodlukest, 4 lodlakest. See also LAIDLY. [OE. láðlic (= OFris. lédlík, OS. lêðlîk, OHG. leidlîh, MHG. leidelich, leitlich, ON. leiðilig-r), f. láð LOATH a. + -lic -LY1.]
Hateful, disgusting, loathsome, repulsive, hideous, horrible. Rare in 17th and 18th cents.; revived in the 19th c. as a literary word.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., III. xiv. (Schipper), 260. Mon laþlice deaþe þone cyning acwealde.
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 219. Awende … to loðlice deoflen.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, 279. Þer ligget laðliche fend in stronge raketeie.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 66. Ower greste, & ower lodlukeste sunnen.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3030. So woren he lodelike on to sen.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 20420. Lokes … þat naman of all our fer bi-fore hir mak latli chere.
13[?]. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. (E.E.T.S.), 584/383. That forehed is lodly That is calouh and bare.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wife’s T., 244. Thou art so loothly, and so oold also.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVII. 265. Ypocrisie … is ylikned in latyn to a lothliche dounghep.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), I. xiii. (1859), 10. He hath … wesshen in the lothely lake of cursyd luxury.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, cxvii. K vj. My clothyng semeth to yow lothly.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., II. xx. Ȝone Catiue … A laithlie ryme dispitefull and subtelle Compylet hes.
1552. in Vicary’s Anat. (1888), App. xvi. 313. If … ye shall happen to espie any persone infected with any lothelie grief or disease.
1591. Spenser, Tears Muses, 335. Clerks they to loathly idlenes entice.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 21. Discord shall bestrew The vnion of your bed, with weedes so loathly That you shall hate it both.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., I. 543. In chamber brooding like a loathly toad.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 309. And hide reluctant Truth in Error’s loathly veil.
1871. R. Ellis, trans. Catullus, cviii. 1. Loathly Cominius.
1886. Besant, Childr. Gibeon, II. vi. A knight was sent forth to kill a dragon or a loathly worm.
1896. Barrie, Marg. Ogilvy, vi. (1897), 115. She sighs at sight of her son, dipping and tearing, and chewing the loathly pen.
† b. absol. or quasi-sb. A monster. Obs.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 934. He laid on þat loodly, lettyd he noght, With dynttes full dregh, till he to dethe paste.
